GSK in hostile takeover bid

GSK will table a hostile $2.6bn takeover bid for Human Genome Sciences after refusing to participate in its strategic review process.

Instead, Glaxo intends to press ahead with its $13 per share offer to HGS’ shareholders, despite the company’s board having previously rejected the same offer.

The bid offers a premium of 81% of HGS’s share price in mid-April, GSK says, and the pharma giant now hopes to evolve its relationship with the Maryland-based firm.

The two are in partnership for the diabetes drug Benlysta. GSK says it “values the long relationship” it has with HSG and would prefer to conduct takeover “on a friendly basis in a timely fashion”.

HSG rejected Glaxo’s initial $13 per share offer on the grounds it undervalued its potential and instructed Wall Street advisors to search for potential suitors, sources claim.

But GSK say their decision not to participate in the review process and to target HGS’s shareholders is unnecessary as there is “clear and strategic logic” to the combination of the companies.

It added that a month has passed since its original offer and that “provides a reasonable amount of time” for HGS to complete its review process.

GSK says it continues to believe that it has made a “full and fair offer” which provides “immediate liquidity” to shareholders in HSG.